(Credit:
Sarah Tew/CNET Networks)
During the 2008 holiday season, we found plenty of affordable Blu-ray players to recommend under $300. Fast-forward a couple months, and we're surprised to find that many of those players are either discontinued (Panasonic DMP-BD35) or are no longer discounted.
You can still get a few Blu-ray players for a bargain, but you'll have to give up some features to get under the $300 mark. None of these players have multichannel analog-audio outputs and they also lack onboard decoding for DTS-HD Master Audio. That being said, most people won't have any complaints with the Blu-ray image quality of these players and the top two players are Profile 2.0 compatible. If you can wait a few more months before you make the jump to Blu, it might be worth seeing how much Samsung and LG price their new Blu-ray players, but these are some of the better bargains available right now.
Read our full comparison of budget Blu-ray players.
Related content: Best Blu-ray players.
(Credit:
Sarah Tew/CNET Networks)
We reviewed the Samsung BD-P1500 when it first hit the market in May 2008, and while we mostly found it to be a solid Blu-ray player, we couldn't give it our full recommendation because it lacked Profile 2.0 and had some disc compatibility issues.
Since then, the BD-P1500 has received several firmware updates and its price has plummeted online, so we decided to take another look at the player. Those firmware updates have made it Profile 2.0-compatible and its disc compatibility problems seem to be fixed, as it played all the discs we tossed at it. It's still not in the top tier of Blu-ray players--its image quality is a step below the best and it lacks DTS-HD Master Audio decoding--but with the street price as low as $220, it's one of the best Blu-ray values available. For those willing to spend a little more, note that Samsung's new Blu-ray players--such as the BD-P3600 and BD-P4600--will hitting the market soon.
The BD-P1500 will get DTS-HD Master Audio by the end of 2008.
Samsung has put out some pretty good Blu-ray players, but the company needs to setup an RSS feed to keep buyers up to date with the constantly changing firmware plans. We got a note from Samsung this afternoon explaining that the firmware update adding DTS-HD High Resolution decoding to the Samsung BD-P1500, BD-P2500, and BD-P2550 has been delayed until the end of the year. That means owners will have to live with standard DTS soundtracks for a little bit longer if they don't own an HDMI-compatible receiver with onboard decoding for DTS-HD Master Audio.
On the upside, Samsung is now promising that all three units will get full DTS-HD Master Audio decoding, rather than the step-down DTS-HD High Resolution decoding. That's pretty good news, and the BD-P2550 is stacking up to be quite a player, with Profile 2.0 support, HQV video processing, Netflix streaming, and now internal decoding for both high-resolution audio soundtrack formats. And, we noticed it's now selling for $350 at Best Buy. Expect a full review from us sometime next week, and find out how it stacks up against the Editors' Choice winning Panasonic DMP-BD35.
EngadgetHD has been keeping a close eye on the prices of Blu-ray players, and recently noticed that both the Samsung BD-P1500 and Sony BDP-S300 have fallen below the $200 mark at certain stores (RadioShack and Amazon.com, respectively.) This is right in line with previous reports of falling Blu-ray prices, and while the BDP-S300 is pretty old, the BD-P1500 is currently Samsung's most recent Blu-ray player. In many ways, these cuts are more important than the budget players we've seen from Insignia and Memorex, since for many people it's a lot easier to drop $200 on Blu-ray if they know they're getting a "Sony."
EngadgetHD's link to RadioShack is no longer working, and we couldn't find the BD-P1500 on the site by searching--we're guessing they're sold out. But if you can find the BD-P1500 for $200, it's a much better deal than the BDP-S300. When we tested the BDP-S300, we found it painfully slow and it only supports the older Profile 1.0 standard.
The BD-P1500, on the other hand, is currently Profile 1.1-compatible and is upgradeable to Profile 2.0, and considerably faster to use than the BDP-S300. The BD-P1500 is also on deck to get DTS-HD Master Audio decoding in the future, which means you'll be able to get high-resolution soundtracks using most HDMI-equipped AV receivers.
Sources:
Samsung's BD-P1500 Blu-ray player dips under $200Sony's BDP-S300 1080p Blu-ray player sinks below $200
Samsung released the first standalone Blu-ray player back in June of 2006, and since then the company has continued to release a steady stream of updated models, seemingly every six months. The latest release is the Samsung BD-P1500, and we'll let you in on the most important information right off the bat--it's not better than the PS3. That being said, it has a relatively low price tag ($400), and Samsung has promised to add both Profile 2.0 and DTS-HD Master Audio to the player in the future. Sure, the Panasonic DMP-BD50 already has both of those features, but the BD-P1500 costs $300 less. On the other hand, its Blu-ray image quality isn't flawless, and those with older receivers will complain about the lack of analog multichannel outputs. Read the full review to get all the details, and check out our list of the best Blu-ray players to see how it stacks up to the competition.
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The BD-P1500 will be BD-Live ready, but it won't have DTS-HD Master Audio decoding.
Samsung announced the BD-P1500 back at CES 2008, but our enthusiasm for it has always been tempered by the fact that the original announcement pegged it as a Blu-ray Profile 1.1 player. Well, Samsung made the BD-P1500 a little more interesting this morning by announcing that the BD-P1500 will be "BD-Live Ready" when it's released in June (pushed back from its original May release date). This means that the BD-P1500 won't be BD-Live (also known as Blu-ray Profile 2.0) capable when it's released, but owners will be able to update the BD-P1500 via a firmware update in the future. Samsung hasn't officially specified when that upgrade will be available, but we're hearing that it'll likely be in the October time frame.
But while Samsung giveth future BD-Live support, it taketh away DTS-HD Master Audio decoding. We originally reported that the BD-P1500 would have onboard DTS-HD Master Audio decoding--based on what we were told by Samsung--but now we're been told that the BD-P1500 won't have DTS-HD Master Audio decoding and that DTS-HD High Resolution decoding will only be supported by a future firmware update, no word as to when that update is coming. The BD-P1500 will have onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD out of the gate, but we really expect all but the cheapest Blu-ray players to have full support for DTS-HD Master Audio at this point, especially after its been added to the PlayStation 3.
Pricing wasn't included in the news release, but Samsung has told us the BD-P1500 will have a list price of $400. That's identical to the Sony PS3, which offers BD-Live and DTS-HD decoding now, and $100 less than the anticipated price of the Panasonic DMP-BD50, which will offer both of those features when it hits stores later this spring. As always, we'll reserve our final judgment until we get our hands on some review samples, but at this point--even with the promised firmware upgrades--it looks like the BD-P1500 is going to have an uphill battle in the increasingly competitive Blu-ray marketplace.
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